Objectives

• Understand how standard search

algorithms work including:
• Binary search
• Linear search

• Use a trace table to determine the what value a

variable will hold at a given point in an algorithm
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Starter
• We search for items
many times a day
• Physical objects such as:
• Clothes
• Homework

• What are five items that

we search for on
computers or
the Internet?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Searching a list
• Searching is a very common operation in computing
• A doctor might search for a patient’s notes
• A police officer can search with a vehicle identification
number (VIN) to find the owner of an abandoned car
• A web browser can search for a word
in a web page
• There are numerous
other examples
of searches
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Searching a sorted list

• Suppose you have a dictionary
and you want to look up the
word nebula
• What will be your strategy for
finding the word?
• One way is to start at the first word
and go through every word in the
dictionary one by one
• What other methods could you use?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

A binary search
• Here is a list of names:

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Stan Tara

The quickest way to find if a particular name is in a

sorted list is to do a binary search
• Suppose we are searching for the name Mo
• The list has 11 items
• Examine the middle one first
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

A binary search
• The middle item in the list is Lara

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Stan Tara

• Lara comes before Mo alphabetically so we can

discard all the names from Ali to Lara
• Now we only have five names to search
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

A binary search
• Here is a list of names:

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Stan Tara

• Examine the middle name of the remaining list

• The middle name is Pam
• Mo comes before Pam so we can discard all the
names from Pam to Tara
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

A binary search
• Here is a list of names:

Ali Ben Carl Joe Ken Lara Mo Oli Pam Stan Tara

• Now we only have two names

• The ‘middle’ name is taken to be the left of the
middle point
• Examine the name, Mo
• Bingo! How many names did we look at for the binary
search?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Divide and conquer

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• In a binary search, the size of the list is halved each

time an item is examined
• How many items, at most, would have to be
examined in a list of 16 items to find the one you are
looking for?
• Try looking for the number 23 in this hidden list of
numbers
• Which box will you look at first?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Divide and conquer

42
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’re looking for the number 23

• There are 16 boxes, so you first try: 16/2=box 8
• Box 8 has the number 42
• This is bigger than 23
• Which box will you look at next?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Divide and conquer

35
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You try box 4 which contains 35

• You’re looking for the number 23
• Which box will you look at next?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Divide and conquer

27
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’re looking for the number 23

• You’ve found the number 27
• Which box will you look at next?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Divide and conquer

23
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You’ve found the number 23!

• How many numbers did you look at?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Divide and conquer

23 27 32 35 37 38 41 42 45 50 52 53 54 58 61 67
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

• You looked in boxes 8, 4, 2 and 1

• In a list of 2n items, the maximum number of items
you will need to look at will be n + 1
• How many items would be examined if you were
searching for 67 instead of 23?
• Try searching for 61 in a list of 15 numbers
(delete 67 from the list)
• How many items need to be examined?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Worksheet 5
• Now complete Task 1 on Worksheet 5
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Linear search
• If the list to be searched is not sorted, it is not
possible to do a binary search
• A linear search may be carried out instead

145 27 83 777 492 588 91 678 399 123

• Items are examined in the sequence

145, 27, 83, 777….
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Comparison of searches
• In a sorted list of 1,000,000
items, how many items
will have to be examined
to establish that an item
is NOT in the list?
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Comparison of searches
• With a binary search, only 20 items have to be
examined to discover that an item is not in the list
• That’s because 1,000,000 is less than 2²º but greater than 2¹⁹
• If the list were unsorted, 1,000,000 items would need to be
checked to prove that the item is not in the list
• With a linear search, 1,000,000 items would need to
be examined
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Worksheet 5
• Now complete Task 2 on Worksheet 5
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

A search algorithm
1 numbers = [5,1,9,8,7,6,4,10]
2 searchItem = int(input())
3 for i in range(len(numbers)):
4 if numbers[i] == searchItem:
5 print("searchItem found")

• The above algorithm asks the user to input a number

and then searches for it in the array numbers
• What is the value of len(numbers)?
• When will "searchItem found" be output?
• Name the type of search algorithm
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

A search algorithm
1 numbers = [5,1,9,8,7,6,4,10]
2 searchItem = int(input())
3 for i in range(len(numbers)):
4 if numbers[i] == searchItem:
5 print("searchItem found")

• The above algorithm asks the user to input a number

and then searches for it in the array numbers
• What is the value of len(numbers)? 8
• When will "searchItem found" be output?
Each time it finds a matching item in the array
• Name the type of search algorithm
Linear search
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Trace tables
1 numbers = [5,1,9,8,7,6,4,10]
2 searchItem = int(input())
3 for i in range(0,len(numbers)):
4 if numbers[i] == searchItem:
5 print("searchItem found")

• The variables can be traced as a program is run

• This is done with a trace table
• Complete the following trace table for the above algorithm
numbers searchItem i numbers[i] Numbers[i] == OUTPUT
searchItem
[5,1,9,8,7,6,4,10] 6 0 5 False
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Trace tables
1 numbers = [5,1,9,8,7,6,4,10]
2 searchItem = int(input())
3 for i in range(0,len(numbers)):
4 if numbers[i] == searchItem:
5 print("searchItem found")

numbers searchItem i numbers[i] Numbers[i] == OUTPUT

searchItem
[5,1,9,8,7,6,4,10] 6 0 5 False
1 1 False
2 9 False
3 8 False
4 7 False
5 6 True "searchItem found"
6 4 False
7 10 False
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Plenary
• With a partner explain how the following searching
algorithms work:
• Binary search
• Linear search

• Report back your answers to the class

Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

Plenary
• Binary search
• This algorithm only works on a sorted list
• The middle item of the list is first checked
• If the item searched for is less than this item the right of the
list is discarded, and a binary search is carried out on the left
of the list
• Linear search
• Each item in the list is checked against the search item
in order
Searching algorithms
Unit 1 Computational thinking

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